Before Declan had the car in park, she grasped the door handle and flung it open. Leaping into the night, she inhaled the crisp air before jogging around the building to the front door. She could enter through the back if she had her keys, but she didn’t. She punched a code into the keypad beside the outer glass door.

A buzzer sounded, and she pulled the door open as Aiden climbed the stairs toward her. He stepped off the last stair and into the vestibule with her. The door was closing when Declan grabbed it, and he and Saxon stepped inside too. She knew it had been too much to hope they would drop her off and leave her alone.

The three large, male bodies crammed into the vestibule made her feel claustrophobic. She glowered at all of them. “I don’t need an escort to my door. I’m perfectly capable of getting there on my own.”

All of them conveniently chose to ignore her as she punched numbers into the second keypad. The solid wood, inner door buzzed, and she pushed it open. The familiar aroma of cats, cigarette smoke, and pizza greeted her. Her landlady chain-smoked and had half a dozen cats. The pizza scent came from the Italian restaurant next door.

Maggie was halfway up the gray, carpet-lined stairs, and more than halfway asleep, before she recalled she didn’t have her keys. She turned and trudged back down. Saxon and Declan leaned against the outer railing to let her pass, but Aiden followed her.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“My landlady has my spare key.” She stopped outside the first door and knocked on it. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” she asked when he leaned against the wall next to the door.

She didn’t like the idea of him leaving, or the realization she would most likely never see him again when he did leave, but she needed time alone right now. She wished she had a landline so she could call to find out where Roger was and made a mental note to get one as soon as possible. Never again would she rely solely on a cell phone.

“No,” Aiden said.

She didn’t have time to argue with him before Mrs. Mackey opened her door. Maggie forced herself not to recoil from the cigarette and cat aromas bursting out the door. Mrs. Mackey materialized through a haze of smoke. A shower cap covered her gray curls, the pink bathrobe she wore was threadbare, and a cigarette dangled from the corner of her wrinkled mouth. Mrs. Mackey’s watery blue eyes surveyed her before going to Aiden. She smiled and pulled the cigarette from between her lips.

“Magdalene,” Mrs. Mackey greeted though she didn’t take her eyes from Aiden.

“I’m sorry, but I left my keys at work, Mrs. Mackey,” Maggie said. “Could I please have the spare?”

“I hope no one else can find them.”

“They’re locked safely away,” Maggie lied.

“Hmm,” Mrs. Mackey grunted and nudged one of her cats back with her foot when it tried to escape the smoke. “Just in case, I’m calling a locksmith to replace your locks and the building’s locks, on your dime.”

Maggie didn’t argue with her. She didn’t have much extra money, but she’d prefer her locks and the ones to the building changed anyway as she had no idea where her keys were right now. However, she highly doubted locks and keypads would stop any vampire trying to get into this place. They were good security against humans, not so much against the supernatural.

“Of course,” Maggie replied and kept her smile in place. Mrs. Mackey could be difficult, but she also baked a mean chocolate chip cookie, which she handed out to the tenants she favored. Maggie refused to be kicked off the cookie recipient list.

The door closed, and Maggie listened to the drone of the TV in the background as she waited for her landlord to return. “She’s interesting,” Aiden said.

“Hmm,” Maggie replied and rubbed at her neck.

Aiden’s hand covered hers. She should knock his hand away, but when he started kneading her aching muscles, she relaxed into him. Distance was what she needed from this vampire, yet one touch from him had her melting like butter in a hot frying pan.

It’s been a rough night, cut yourself some slack, she told herself.

Yes, please cut yourself some slack for lusting after the vampire who might prefer prostitutes and who bit you!

Maggie knocked his hand away as Mrs. Mackey returned with her key. A gleam lit Mrs. Mackey’s eyes when she looked at Aiden, and Maggie realized not only had she removed her cap, but she’d also applied a layer of lipstick. Apparently, even senior citizens couldn’t help themselves around Aiden.

That didn’t make her feel any better about her lack of self-restraint.

Maggie took the key from Mrs. Mackey’s outstretched hand as the woman batted her lashes at Aiden. “Have a good night, Mrs. Mackey,” Maggie said. “And thank you for the key.”

“Of course, dear,” she replied.

Mrs. Mackey rested her hand on Maggie’s arm and tugged her back when she started to turn away. When the older woman hooked a finger and gestured Maggie toward her, Maggie bent closer. “If I were you, dear, I’d take that man for a ride. Perhaps you’ll smile more.”

Unprepared for the words, a blush crept up her cheeks as she stepped away. Aiden’s smirk didn’t help as she turned and shuffled toward the stairs. Feeling more like ninety than twenty-four, Maggie trudged tiredly up the stairs and back past Saxon and Declan.

“I’ll help you gather your things,” Aiden said as she turned onto the stairwell for the second floor before continuing to the third.

“My things?” she asked, too caught up in her fantasies of food, a hot shower, and pillows to process what he was saying. She’d eaten at Carha’s but her stomach was already rumbling again. Apparently, she’d worked up quite the appetite while running for her life.

“Yes. I’ll help you pack so we can get out of here sooner.”

“Out of here?” she asked stupidly, hating that she parroted him, but she had no idea what he was talking about.

“And somewhere safer.”

“I’m not leaving my apartment,” she told him. She glanced over her shoulder to find Aiden’s eyes narrowed on her. Behind him, Saxon and Declan exchanged a look.

“You can’t stay here,” Aiden replied.

“I have nowhere else to go.”

“You’ll come with me.”

“No. I won’t.”

Declan and Saxon slowed their pace; their heads tipped back as if they suddenly found the water stains on the ceiling of the stairwell fascinating.

Aiden didn’t break her stare while he spoke. “It’s possible the Savages know where you live. They’ll come looking for you if they do.”

“It’s also possible aliens could arrive tomorrow. I’m willing to take my chances.”

“I’m not.”

“No one asked you!” she snapped and pulled open the door to the third-floor hallway.

She stepped out of the stairwell and stalked toward the door at the end. The same gray carpet lined this floor as all the others. Stopping outside her door, she slid her key into the deadbolt, unlocked it, and swung the door open. She flipped the switch and stepped inside. The glow from a lamp next to her fifth-hand couch illuminated the small living room with its old, hardwood floors and blue throw rug.

The floor had seen better days in the seventies, but she loved the character of every dent and scratch on its golden surface. Sometimes, she would sit and wonder about the families who had lived here before her, the lives they’d led and the love they’d shared. In all her imaginings, no one had lived here alone, as she did.

She may have no one else to share this place with, but it was her home, and she took pride in her ability to keep it. She’d spent the past two years turning it into a place she looked forward to returning to every night.

“I will not leave it,” she muttered. “Damn pushy vamps thinking they—no, he…”—over her shoulder, she shot a look at Aiden—“knows what’s best for me. You don’t.”

He didn’t speak as he remained standing in her doorway. Maggie bent and unlaced her boots. She tugged them off and set them in the box next to the door before stalking toward her small galley kitchen. She didn’t bother with shutting the door behind her; she knew it wouldn’t stop Aiden from following her inside.

Opening the fridge, she removed a bottle of Gatorade and the leftover Chinese noodles from the night before. She took a fork out of the drawer as she stared at the open door, but none of the three massive men entered her apartment. Keeping the box of noodles in hand, she slurped some into her mouth as she walked over to the doorway.

Aiden had his hand resting on the doorframe as he leaned against it. He gave her a small smile. “You going to invite me in?”

Maggie froze with a forkful of noodles halfway to her mouth. “That’s a real thing!” she blurted as she dropped the fork into the box.

“Yes, we have to be invited into homes.”

“Does it apply to the Savages too?”

“Yes.”

She stood for a minute, torn on what to do. Then she glanced around her home before strolling back toward the door. “In that case….” She shut the door in his face and locked it.

Silence followed. Then she heard Declan and Saxon laughing loudly in the hall. A knock sounded, but Maggie grabbed her remote, turned on the TV, and upped the volume on the news. When she heard another knock, she turned the volume higher.